February 1, 2026 , Simele

For decades the massacre of Simele existed only in the fragile architecture of Assyrian memory. The voices of the martyrs of 1933, survivors as well of the earlier Chaldean Syriac Assyrian genocide of 1915-1918, lived on in laments, church liturgies, and family stories, yet never in stone or bronze on the soil where they were murdered. The absence itself became a second injustice: a crime without a visible witness.

In 2026 that silence is finally being broken. Plans are underway for a major memorial complex in Simele, the town where thousands of unarmed Assyrian civilians were gunned down or bludgeoned to death by units of the Iraqi army, supported by Arab and Kurdish tribes. This was not an isolated atrocity or a moment of wartime chaos. It was the violent answer to Assyrian demands for dignity and limited self-administration within the newly created Iraqi state, and to the determination of Baghdad and its British patrons to extinguish those aspirations by force and then erase them from history. Arab nationalist ideologue Khaldun Husri would later dismiss the slaughter as a mere “incident,” a word that encapsulated the official strategy of denial until today.

Assyrians, however, never forgot. The tragedy of Simele became the core wound of modern Assyrian identity. Malik Qambar of Jilu, writing weeks after the massacre, implored his people to remember the dead, “the sons and daughters of the inheritors of Mesopotamia, the land that educated the entire world.” He called the crime a blow that “pierced the heart of Assyrianism” and vowed to carry its sorrow until his final day. His words echoed through generations who felt abandoned by the Iraqi state, betrayed by British duplicity, and deserted by many who had called themselves friends.

International voices have gradually begun to acknowledge what Assyrians always knew. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky noted that August 7, 1933 marked the beginning of “several days of terror” in which Iraqi forces systematically destroyed dozens of Assyrian villages, killing many and displacing tens of thousands. In 2023 the U.S. House of Representatives introduced Resolution 472 to recognize and commemorate the Simele massacre, affirming that denial must no longer be tolerated. Assyrian writer Aprim Shapira rightly observed that Simele became the moment when a modern Assyrian national consciousness was forged, yet the very place of the crime remained neglected, an open wound without a marker.

What Simele Was

Understanding Simele requires understanding the birth of Iraq itself. As the British mandate neared its end, Assyrians (particularly those who lost their lands in the Hakkari and Urmia areas), already devastated by Ottoman persecution, feared absorption into a state that was newly created and offered them no protection. In 1932 their leaders, headed by Patriarch Mar Eshai Shimun, sought modest administrative autonomy and recognition of their national existence. Baghdad and London rejected these demands, undermining the demands and legitimacy of the Patriarch, and set about dividing the community from its leadership. British officials cynically assured that any punitive action would be directed only at the Patriarch and Malik Yaqu, not “the Assyrians as a whole,” while quietly preparing the ground for collective repression.

Some Assyrians accepted the imposed settlement. Patriarch Mar Shimun stood firm and was arrested and exiled to Cyprus. This outraged Assyrians and, led by Malik Yaqu, attempted to leave for Syria. When they returned to collect their families, clashes with Iraqi troops erupted and the Assyrians prevailed, defeating the Iraqi army at Iraqi-Syrian border, a shock that Baghdad interpreted as intolerable defiance by Christian “infidels.” The response was merciless and unjustly directed toward those who did not fight.

In August 1933 Iraqi units under Bakir Sidqi, with the full backing of Interior Minister Hikmat Sulayman and other Iraqi and British figures, entered Simele and neighboring villages where civilians had already surrendered their weapons. Men were separated from women and children, then executed with machine guns and bayonets. The violence spread to numerous Assyrian settlements. This was not a spontaneous act; it was a coordinated campaign intended to shatter Assyrian collective identity and to announce that there would be no Assyrian future in Iraq. The massacre completed what the earlier genocide had begun, driving survivors toward fragmentation and denominational retreat.

British officials, embarrassed but approving and supporting, praised Sidqi’s “success” as an act of state-building. Brigidare-General Hugo Headlam, the British inspector-general of the Iraqi army, stated that Iraqis should be "thankful" for the skills of Sidqi as he punished the Assyrians. Later, Baghdad celebrated the slaughter of innocent Assyrians as proof of national strength. For Assyrians it confirmed a brutal lesson: surrender brought not protection but extermination. And so the slaughter at Simele and its surroundings remained awaiting justice in the future.

The Meaning of the Monument

The memorial now rising at Simele answers that history with permanence. It will be the largest monument in the world dedicated to Assyrian martyrs, a deliberate moral statement that the suffering of this people will no longer be scattered across basements in Chicago, parish halls in Sydney, or modest churches in Ankawa and Dohuk. The design draws on the reliefs of ancient Nineveh and the crosses of the Church of the East, uniting pre,Christian and Christian Assyria into one continuous story. Pathways inscribed with the names of destroyed villages lead to a sanctuary oriented toward the Khabour and the Hakkari highlands, the landscapes of exile from which the victims came.

To build the memorial in Simele itself is an act of historical justice. For generations Assyrians were forced to mourn far from the earth that absorbed their families’ blood. Any other location would have repeated the logic of displacement. Simele is not simply a town; it is a moral coordinate where loyalty was answered with annihilation. Marking this ground with dignity transforms a geography of terror into a geography of witness.

A New Partnership

The project has become possible through unprecedented cooperation by Assyrian activists, parliament members and Assyrian professionals with the Kurdistan Regional Government, whose allocation of land and public endorsement represent a decisive break with decades of avoidance. Kurdish and Assyrian representatives have worked jointly on infrastructure, security, and educational programs, affirming that Assyrian memory is part of the region’s shared heritage rather than an inconvenience to be managed.

Mr. Sam Darmo of Arizona, head of Assyrians for Justice, joined efforts with Dr. Youkhana Zaya of Nova Design, the Assyrian architect responsible for the design of the monument site. Dr. James Haido, an engineer and member of the Kurdistan Regional Parliament, has played a central role in submitting the necessary documentation to government offices and guiding the project through official channels. The team has also benefited from the assistance of Mr. Dasko Shirwani of the KRG office in Washington, D.C., who helped ensure that bureaucratic procedures in Dohuk were properly managed. The land committee appointed for the project included Dr. James Haido, Mr. Younan Lazar, Mr. William Teodor, Mr. Zaya Adam, and Ms. Sarah Hurmez. A separate museum committee, tasked with planning the interior design and exhibitions, will be formed in the near future.

Equally vital to the success of the project has been the commitment of the diaspora. Descendants of refugees who once fled with nothing but icons and family photographs now contribute architectural expertise, fundraising networks, and political advocacy. Church leaders, scholars, and community figures from the United States and Europe have partnered with institutions in the homeland, demonstrating that the distance between exile and ancestral land can be bridged by a shared responsibility to honor the martyrs of Simele.

Toward a Sacred Place

When completed, the Simele memorial will be more than a structure; it will be a place of pilgrimage and education for Chaldean Syriac Assyrians the world over, asserting the oneness of a dispersed and persecuted nation. Families will light candles for grandparents whose graves were never known. Children will learn the names of villages erased in 1933. Scholars will confront the documentary record within its archives, ensuring that denial finds no future refuge. For Iraq and the wider Middle East, the site will offer a difficult but necessary lesson: reconciliation begins with truth, and nations mature only when they can name their crimes.

Ninety three years after the massacre, the martyrs of Simele are no longer voiceless. Powerful stone now answers the machine guns of Bakir Sidqi and memory answers eradication. The road that once carried Assyrians into exile is becoming a road of return, where a people long scattered may stand together and declare with confidence: we remember, and therefore we remain.